Collection
The Louisiana Creole table
Gumbo, jambalaya, and a kitchen that layered French, Spanish, West African, and Choctaw cooking.
Creole cooking grew where several cuisines were forced to share a stove. Its backbone is the dark roux — flour and fat taken almost to the edge of burning — and the trinity of onion, celery, and bell pepper that goes into it.
These dishes are the classics: a gumbo thickened two ways, a jambalaya that cooks rice in the same pot, and the red beans that anchored a Monday across the city.
Red Beans and Rice
Dried red beans cooked with ham, onion, carrot, and herbs, served with boiled rice.
Oyster Gumbo
Oysters and oyster liquor thickened with a dark roux, herbs, and filé; served with rice.
Jambalaya of Fowls and Rice
A fowl, raw rice, and ham cooked together until the rice absorbs the seasoned broth.
Gumbo d’Herbes (Green Gumbo)
A long-simmered gumbo of mixed greens, herbs, beef, ham, and hot pepper.
Shrimp Jambalaya
Shrimp, tomatoes, onion, rice, and herbs cooked together in seasoned broth.
Crawfish Bisque
Crawfish tails and a deeply flavored shell broth, traditionally served with stuffed crawfish heads.
Crab Jambalaya
Crab, rice, tomatoes, and herbs cooked together in broth with a little roux.